Pyongyang says Seoul not main enemy, but will strike South if attacked
Seoul, Apr 5 (EFE).- The sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Tuesday sent a new message to South Korea saying that it is not the “principal enemy” of her country, but that Pyongyang will not hesitate to respond with nuclear weapons if Seoul carries out a pre-emptive strike.
Kim Yo-jong’s text follows another she published on Sunday in which the North Korean deputy director of propaganda slammed South Korea’s defense minister Suh Wook for talking about Seoul’s ability to attack North Korea pre-emptively if it detects the launch of a missile aimed at the South.
Its unification ministry responded on Monday, urging Pyongyang not to increase regional tension and to return to dialogue.
Kim Yo-jong replied Tuesday saying “we have already clarified that South Korea is not our principal enemy.”
“In other words, it means that unless the south Korean army takes any military action against our state, it will not be regarded as a target of our attack,” Kim said in the statement published by the state outlet KCNA.
She assured that Pyongyang “opposes war” and that if both countries fight, the peninsula “will suffer a disaster as it did half a century ago that might be more terrible, no matter which side will win or lose in a war or combat.”
She added that if the South opts “for such military action as a ‘preventive strike'” then it will “become a target” and that its military “will have to face a miserable fate little short of total destruction and ruin.”
“This is not just a threat. It is a detailed explanation of our reaction to possible reckless military action by South Korea and its consequences,” Kim warned, insisting that speaking of a “‘preemptive strike’ against a nuclear weapons state” as Suh did is a “fantastic daydream” and “hysteria of a lunatic.”
“We will not fire even a single bullet or shell toward south Korea. It is because we do not regard it as match for our armed forces,” she said.
North Korea, which remains totally isolated due to the pandemic and with no sign of opening to dialogue soon, approved a weapons modernization plan in January 2021 that is behind the recent increase in projectile tests (a record 12 since the beginning of the year).
In addition to launching its first intercontinental missile since 2017 last week, to which the South responded by launching its own missiles, satellite images suggest the regime could soon test a submarine-launched ballistic missile and detonate a nuclear weapon for the first time in five years. EFE
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